1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a surveillance apparatus, and, in particular, a transportable roadside housing for a law enforcement vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
It is a constant challenge for law enforcement agencies to institute and maintain effective programs for enforcing posted speed limits and other traffic rules on highways and other roads. The manpower necessary to continuously or even periodically monitor traffic, as by radar speed monitoring and enforcement, make this effort difficult, if not impossible, to accomplish, and only at a very high cost for equipment and personnel.
Enforcement agencies have heretofore attempted to reduce highway speeds short of setting up a fully staffed "speed trap", by, for example, parking an unoccupied police cruiser along the side of the road, or setting up an unmanned, but operating radar gun. Such measures generally may temporarily work to cause vehicle operators to slow down to speeds closer to the posted speed limit, but generally, over time, it becomes known that there is no law enforcement official associated with the set up to pursue the speeders, and the flow of traffic returns to the elevated speeds.
There is, accordingly, a continuing need for measures which will be effective, over an extended period of time, at causing drivers to travel at speeds at or closer to the posted speed limit, or, where applicable, cause drivers to obey some other traffic law which is frequently violated.
It is therefore principal object of the present invention to provide an apparatus to be used by law enforcement officials patrolling in vehicles for periodic monitoring or surveillance of traffic, wherein the apparatus effectively conceals the interior of the apparatus such that drivers can not determine whether a law enforcement vehicle is present inside the apparatus.
It is a further important object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can temporarily house a vehicle with a running engine, and which can easily be transported to a desired roadside location.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a vehicle housing apparatus that can be entered at one end and exited at the other end, and which can be seen through from the interior to the exterior, but not from the exterior to the interior.